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Calling out McCrory over DACA

Last week's action in Raleigh was amazing!

We decided we had to do something after months of attempting to contact McCrory's office to request a meeting to discuss our concerns regarding the DAPA lawsuit and being completely ignored without so much as a call to say the Governor's office could not meet with us. We felt that McCrory's office was disrespecting the community by ignoring us.

As you probably know by now, our Governor McCrory joined NC to a 26 state lawsuit challenging President Obama's completely legal and constitutional Executive Action on Immigration from November of 2014. These attorneys general and governors seek to put a stop to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Responsibility (DAPA) programs that would benefit close to 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows in our country. Not only that, this lawsuit will hurt our country and our state.

The march lasted about 35 minutes. People banged their pots and pans loudly and proudly. It was amazing. When we got as far as the General Assembly, we all stopped and made noise for about 5 minutes. There were close to 100 people who stopped what they were doing and took pictures of our group and clapped. Drivers passing by honked their horns in solidarity. At this spot, Reverend Curtis Gatewood from NAACP lead everyone on chants. We all felt super powerful.

Then we walked to the Governor's Mansion. Around 10 people spoke at the mansion. One of the highlights of the press conference was the speech given by one of El Pueblo's young people, Jorge Ramos. His speech was POWERFUL. It was made more powerful, when you took into account that he is not yet out of high school.

At the end of the press conference, someone brought out HUGE American flag. We opened it and faced the mansion, chanting in Spanish and in English, WE ARE AMERICA.

If all people in NC who qualify for executive action were to apply, that would mean $197 million in tax revenue for NC within 5 years. If these people also got drivers licenses, they would buy car insurance and that too would bring in revenue. More businesses would be able to employ more people, meaning job stimulation. It would also mean higher wages, as more people would have their worker rights protected.